Secondary school
Secondary schools in Poland are defined as the schools that a student may attend after graduating from gymnasium. There are several types:
-three-year comprehensive high school (LO), ending with a school-leaving examination;
-four-year technical high school (T) ending with issuance of a vocational certification and a school-leaving examination
-three-year basic vocational school (ZSZ) ending with issuance of a diploma confirming vocational qualifications in a given profession/s; sitting the school-leaving examination is conditional upon continuation of education in a complementary comprehensive or technical high school or comprehensive high school for adults;
For comprehensive and technical high school graduates, further education in post-secondary schools, or tertiary education opportunities (after passing the school-leaving examination) are available.
Those who do not graduate from comprehensive or technical high or vocational school have the opportunity to continue their education in comprehensive high schools for adults, which can end with a school-leaving exaination.
Post-secondary schools themselves determine the criteria for admission of candidates. To learn the rules for admission to a given school, you must contact them directly (usually this information can also be found on the website for the school).
School-leaving examination
The school-leaving examination is a nationwide state exam for comprehensive and technical high school graduates carried out in all schools in Poland at the same time, usually in May. It is not mandatory. A passing grade in this examination is, however, a condition of further study at tertiary education institutions.
It consists of two parts: mandatory and additional. In the mandatory part the students pass an oral and written test of the Polish language, a chosen foreign language, a test in mathematics and a minority language, provided that it is taught in the school.
In the additional part, the student may select up to six subjects for examination. The student can also decide whether to take them at a basic level or advanced level.
The condition for passing the exam is to receive 30% of the points available in each subject tested in the mandatory part of the examination.
